I'd like to write about Small Victories.

How do you choose your victories?

Victories generally fall into three categories: concrete wins, cultural changes, and mobilizations. You’ll find a mix of these in each newsletter.

It’s easy to understand why concrete wins, like policy changes or election results, are victories. But the other two categories are a little more ambiguous, so we’ll explain why we do consider them to be victories.

We might not see immediate results, but this could inspire other people to get involved or set the stage for larger victories in the future. As Rebecca Solnit and Howard Zinn have written, concrete wins can take decades, but they’re only possible because of smaller steps along the way.

Why did you list something as a victory when it’s only partially good? Are all of these victories perfect?

Nope! Not every victory we list is perfect or goes far enough—and some are complicated and contradictory—but in many cases, we think they could be the first steps toward something better.

Why don’t you write about all of the bad things that are happening?

We’re deliberately choosing to write about only victories because we want this newsletter to serve a very specific purpose—to encourage and sustain people’s activism. In counteracting the onslaught of bad news, we’re trying to illuminate the possibilities about our shared future.

That said, we are not trying to minimize or ignore the reality of our current political situation, and we highly encourage you to stay informed. Here are some news sources we recommend: Democracy Now, Jacobin, The Intercept, Pro Publica.

Why should anyone be hopeful right now?

We know, it can feel impossible to be hopeful right now, but we believe in the power of the people to change our country in big ways and small. We like the way our friend Rebecca Solnit defines hope: “It navigates a way forward between the false certainties of optimism and of pessimism, and the complacency or passivity that goes with both. Optimism assumes that all will go well without our effort; pessimism assumes it’s all irredeemable; both let us stay home and do nothing. Hope for me has meant a sense that the future is unpredictable, and that we don’t actually know what will happen, but know we may be able write it ourselves.”

I don’t like the group / news source in one of your victories.

Tell us! We love feedback. We’re not perfect and appreciate the chance to learn and grow.

How did this newsletter get started? What is Peace is Loud?

We work at Peace is Loud, a nonprofit that champions women peacebuilders. In January, we started sending Small Victories to our coworkers as a way of lifting people’s spirits. At the time, we didn’t expect it to be anything more than that. But our coworkers started forwarding the emails to friends, and people we didn’t know began emailing us and asking to sign up. So we made it public—and were thrilled that thousands of people subscribed.

It became such a big project that we now send it out independently, but we’re grateful to have the continued and generous support of Peace is Loud as a sponsor, and we want to give a special shoutout to Codey Young, Joanna Hoffman, and Jamie Dobie for all of their help along the way.